While pop star Ariana Grande will grace the big screen once again for the upcoming fourth installment in the Meet the Parents franchise, Barbra Streisand says she will probably not be reprising her role for the new movie.
In an interview with Variety published Wednesday (June 25), the singer said that after her appearances in Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers, she likely will not return to her role as Roz Focker for the John Hamburg-directed sequel due to what she describes as low pay from her last two appearances in the series.
“They’d have to pay me a lot of money because I didn’t get paid what the other people got paid and so I’m pissed off,” she said. “I was in the time when women were getting paid less than the men. The head of Universal was Ron Meyer at the time, and he actually sent me a bonus check. It was very sweet.”
Streisand originated the role of Roz, protagonist Greg Focker’s (Ben Stiller) mother who works as a sex therapist for elderly couples, in 2004’s Meet the Fockers. She later reprised the role in 2010’s Little Fockers.
The news comes as Grande was announced as the latest addition to the franchise back in May, where she’s reportedly set to play the “ball-busting” woman engaged to Stiller’s character’s son.
While Streisand didn’t offer any specific reaction to Grande’s casting, she did offer praise for the “Yes, And?” singer, who features alongside Mariah Carey on Streisand’s upcoming new duets album The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two. “[Carey and Grande are] the hottest, biggest, most wonderful voices. And they both said yes to join me,” she said in the interview.
Elsewhere on The Secret of Life, Streisand duets for the first time with Bob Dylan, which she told Billboard was a “wonderful” experience. “I’m ever the director. And he wanted direction, which was so lovely: ‘What do you think? What do you want?’ He just was so open to trying this or trying that,” she recalled. “It was really easy.”
